The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-06-14
4 BAG WITH HOLES.
ny ROSE TERRY COOK.

right to sit there, for she paid heI
board pnnctually, having "means.'
as the neighbours said.
What the Potters would have done
her board to help them, they
could net think--now they had it
Yet before Mrs. Potter's Uncle Ebene
ger died they had lived just as many
other people live. Uncle Eben had
never helped his niece at all since he
gave her a modest outfit and a hun
dred dollars in cash, when she married
Rowley Potter, a young fellow who
was getting good wages in the great
rifle factory at H.
Louisa was a pretty, capable, bright
girl then; but that was twenty
years ago. Now she was a
thin, sallow, tretiul woman. Pot
ter still worked in the rifle shop" az
they called it, but he had only dol
lar day more wages than when he
was married, and there were four
children. Lofty. eighteen years old,
pretty, pert and vain, worked in n
hosiery, store. Tom, sixteen, was in
a nut-and-bolt shop; Idalla, girl oil
fourteen, was leash girl" in Holmes
& Harper's great dry goods store.
Tom and Lofty paid their board,
"Idy" clothed herself, she could get
bargains and remnants so cheap, when
she should be promoted into "sa!es
lady" she would pay like the others.
The fourth child, little Davy, was
only ten; he went to public school.
When Aunt Pratt was left n widow
she made up her mind to sell the farm
and board somewhere; she had no
children, but she did have rheumatism
enough to tire her with its aches and
stiffness more than a family OF the
noisiest boys and girls could have tir-
ed her. The farm was n good one,
we'll improved, the house and barns in
thorough repair, and there were six
COWS ami two horses, as well as plenty
OF farming implements. She got ST.
500 for the whole. The neighbors
said it was worth more; the buyer
said it was worthless, so shrewd Aunt
Pratt considered the price fair.
Then there was 81, 800 in Dalton
bank, the slow accu mutation OF but.
ter and egg money and the sale OF
poultry and calves; $4,000 in all, and
every cent OF it her own. Squire Hart
OF Dalton, vino was executor OF the
will, invested the money in safe ways
at six per cent, and Mrs. Pratt
began to look about her for a
home She knew that Louisa Pot
ter had felt hurt about her I'm
Gle Pratt's will; he only left to her her
grandmother mahogany furniture
and the savings bank book in which
he had deposited the profits made out
OF the Friesland hens and the white
heller calf she left in his hands when
she married-a sum amounting to
500 now.
But Lousia aud her husband had
expected more, and Mrs. Pratt was a
Just woman, capable Misunderstanding
other peoples feelings so she did not
wonder. After much thought, and
without any suggestions from them,
she proposed to come into II. and
board with Louisa. So they gave up
to her Lotty's front bedroom, and
put Lofty in with Ida and us they
cooked and ate in the same room
where they sat at evening, Aunt Pratt's
rocker, her footstool, her small round
table and her work basket were es.
tablisbed in the sunny south window,
where she could look down into the
street and up into the sky; for this
tenement was on n corner, and the
Potters had the third story fiat.
IL was agreat change for Aunt Pratt
but she was woman brought up IN
the old New England fashion to dc
what she perceived to be her duty
however unpleasant and painful, with
out shrinking or complaint, and she
had made up her mind that it was hel
duty to help the Potters.
She missed the fresh air OF the farm
the quiet Of her own house, the new
milk, the sweet butter. the good bread
but she said nothing as she sat day
after day, in her window knit
ting or mending, her big Bible
open on the stand, and her thought:
very busy with the things around her
as we'll as with the things that ar,
above. For Aunt Pratt had made
resolution to leave her money IN thu
way it would do her relatives thu
most good and she must study then
and their customs before she could
discover what that way was. SIN
soon found out that they were always
in debt. Potter hadgood wages Lot
ty and Tom were of his hands, Ids